A few years ago, I was talking with a friend about some of the more fanatical fans of cult TV shows and the ways that they (okay, we) interact with their (okay, our) chosen media. We had noticed a certain attitude among some fans, of some shows, who didn’t particularly seem to care whether the show was any good or not — if the plots made sense or if they worked at all; if the show told a story — but only about what was happening to a particular favorite character. Or, more often, a pair of characters. As long as the beloved character(s) looked heroic, or hot, or had the right kind of sexual or quasi-sexual tension with the right person, nothing else really seemed to matter.
And if anything bad happened to the character or couple in question, the show itself was bad; the fans were angry. On some level, this seems like an understandable reaction. On the other hand, the shows in question were usually dramas. If, while watching a drama, viewers insist that nothing bad or upsetting can ever happen to a favorite character — and if every character is somebody’s favorite — what in the world are the people creating the show supposed to do?
(I’m pretty sure, at the time, that my friend and I were particularly perplexed by fans of the Apollo/Starbuck pair-up on the new version of Battlestar Galactica. But you could insert many fanbases for many shows and get the same effect. I was a Buffy/Spike fan, I don’t really have room to talk about anybody).
This conversation led to the creation of a grand plan to make a show that would never upset anybody. We called it Big Sexy Hospital. Nominally, as the title suggests, Big Sexy Hospital would be a medical drama. However, actual medicine-related plots would get as little screentime as possible. Instead, the focus of the show would be fan-favorite actors from previous shows. (We went between Paul Gross of Due South and Nathan Fillion of Firefly as our star). The actors would play thinly-disguised riffs on the characters that had made them nerd-famous, and every week, the patient/guest star/love interest would be somebody that the series regulars had interacted and had real or imagined sexual tension with (whether it’s real or imagined always depends on which fan you ask) on their previous nerd-famous show. The stories would never make any sense, but no one would care.
That’s the best explanation I can come up with for why I’m still watching Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Up until the premiere last winter, my friend and I were watching the casting information fill in with alumni of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Eliza Dushku), Angel: the Series (Amy Acker), Battlestar Galactica (Tahmoh Penikett), Homicide: Life on the Street (Reed Diamond), and the X-Men movie franchise/the movies of Wes Anderson (Olivia Williams). Since then, more and more cult-TV alums have showed up in guest and recurring spots: Jamie Bamber from BSG, Alexis Denisof from Buffy/Angel, and Alan Tudyk and Summer Glau of Firefly. “My God,” my friend and I say every time another casting is announced. “This is totally the show we made up!”
I’m not suggesting that Dollhouse ever aspired to be Big Sexy Hospital. The show has some kind of a mytharc lurking behind its bizarre premise (briefly: fringe-y neuroscience being used to program invariably pretty people into real-life dolls that the rich and powerful can buy and use for their own ends). It also desperately seems to want to say something about female agency and the male gaze in modern popular culture. Talking to friends in the pop-culture realms of academia, it’s like the show was invented for feminist film theory. (Big Sexy Media Studies Seminar?) Still, the premise hasn’t ever really come together in a satisfactory way and, while having a textual artifact to sharpen analytical claws on is all good and well, it’s nice if there’s actually a functional story to hang it on. In my mind, at least, Dollhouse has never really gotten there.
Still, I keep watching the damn thing (it’s officially been cancelled, but FOX is still airing the second season on Friday nights, and apparenty the episodes filmed so far take it to some kind of ending point.) If for no other reason, I watch for scenes like the one we got last week, where Alexis Denisof and Eliza Dushku got half-naked and played with knives. There was a (nominal) plot-reason for them to do this, but none that I could detect for the scene to be so sexually charged — until you factor in that Denisof played Wesley, and Dushku played Faith, on Buffy and later on Angel. Those two characters had a complex, occasionally violent, and oddly sexually charged dynamic on their previous shows and viewers are supposed to thrill from seeing the actors revisit those interactions. (Okay, I don’t know if we’re supposed to, but I totally did, and I know enough other Faith/Wesley fans to determine I’m not the only one.) It’s got nothing to do with the people they’re ostensibly playing on Dollhouse, though. That’s the most blatant (but hardly the only) example of the show trading on things that it assumes its audience (or significant portions) is aware of.
I hope it’s obvious from what I’ve said above that I’m a huge fan of Joss Whedon’s shows. I loved Buffy, and Angel and Firefly, and I’ve got a residual affection for all of these actors because of seeing them in other things. I’m just not sure what show I’m supposed to be watching when I’m watching Dollhouse — unless it’s Big Sexy Hospital.
Whatever Joss Whedon does after Dollhouse, I’ll definitely be there to watch. I just hope, next time around, he’ll get back to telling stories.
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December 8, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Aboynamedart
For me, there’s definitely been times where it’s tough to parse out whatever Joss and Eliza wanted to do because it’s been shown on Fox – as opposed to, say, cable, where he could pull out more of the stops.
Still, last Friday’s two-parter was a rarity for me: it was a good ep that ventured outside the (L.A.) Dollhouse. Adele rocked, as always, and Victopher was a triumph.
December 8, 2009 at 7:32 pm
madmarvelgirl
@Art Ha ha ha — Victopher! And yeah, I actually did enjoy these last couple episodes (and not just for Alexis and Eliza shirtless and playing with knives). It’s still hard to call the thing an artistic success overall and I can’t even begin to parse all the reasons why in this space, so I wasn’t trying!
December 8, 2009 at 8:29 pm
throughthebrush
I think you’ve heard most of my thoughts on Dollhouse, and they’re largely in line with yours, but this is a great post about its (dubiously legitimate) merits. Considering my primary glee at the last episode of Castle was caused by the guest casting of Marc Blucas (Riley!) and Rider Strong (Shawn from Boy Meets World!), I clearly am the kind of audience Big Sexy Hospital shows target.
Also, I knew Eliza/Alexis with knives was going to be your highlight of the episode. 🙂
December 8, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Aboynamedart
One more thought about the show: however it ends, I’m willing to put Victor/Sierra right up there with the best Whedon ‘ships.
December 8, 2009 at 9:32 pm
madmarvelgirl
Just to be clear, if Big Sexy Hospital was a real show, I would watch it every week.
December 8, 2009 at 10:12 pm
handyhunter
Big Sexy Hospital is the only reason I’m sort of watching Dollhouse — I have no idea what’s going on, have not seen most of the episodes, am undoubtedly influenced by the criticism I’ve read, but Senator Wesley! and Faith! (Though as soon as she starts getting beat up, which seems to happen a lot?, I stop watching the episode or skip to the end.)
December 9, 2009 at 10:23 am
Sigrid
I loooooove Big Sexy Hospital. :grins: I also haven’t seen these episodes yet, but look forward to doing so!
December 9, 2009 at 12:16 pm
madmarvelgirl
Sigrid, I really think you’ll enjoy these episodes — I don’t mean to slight them because overall they’re some of the best storytelling the show’s done so far. Things are starting to pay off (and try not to spoil yourself because there are some genuinely good twists). I still think the whole edifice of the show is a bit of a creaky mess, though.
December 9, 2009 at 12:20 pm
madmarvelgirl
Art – I’m not really sold on Vic/Sierra, even though I love the actors and think they have a lot of chemistry, because I’m not sure how to evaluate the dolls as characters. Who are they, really, and what does it mean that they like each other? I have a hard time comparing that to, say, Spike/Buffy or Willow/Tara or Xander/Cordelia.
Handyhunter — the plots of these last couple episodes are actually pretty good if you’ve been keeping up with things, but if you find the show overall a tough slog (which it sounds like you do, and even though I mostly enjoy it, I can’t blame you) it’s not really worth trying to keep track.
December 9, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Jeff
I feel like Big Sexy Hospital could air as an hourlong Monday – Friday and be consistently profitable for whichever network runs it.
Can we get Aaron Sorkin to co-write it with Joss Whedon?
December 10, 2009 at 4:02 pm
madmarvelgirl
My God, Jeff, I hadn’t even thought about the writers’ room. . . everybody from geek TV and everybody from comics is invited.
December 10, 2009 at 4:10 pm
WonderAli
This… this is totally wicked! I love it! If someone pitched Dollhouse this way, I would have been watching it. Although, I think there’s still too much Dushku for my taste.
@Jeff we need Russel T. Davies to help write this as well
December 10, 2009 at 4:45 pm
madmarvelgirl
Ali, as long as we’re talking about the writers’ room, we may as well invite Geoff Johns.
December 14, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Best Moments in Fandom, 2009 « Thinking Too Much
[…] best show I watch. It is, however, a fannish delight. It is, in the words of my friend Caroline, Big, Sexy Hospital. It’s a show starring lots of my favorite actors from different fandoms, with guest stars […]
December 16, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Not too chatty today (Day 16) « Diary of a Mad Marvel Girl
[…] insanely fannish about from week to week. It’s kind of a mystery to me how I got hooked on Big, Sexy Hospital instead […]
December 19, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Dollhouse FollowUp (Day 19) « Diary of a Mad Marvel Girl
[…] city is covered with snow, I was actually home last night to watch them. This series still has some Big, Sexy Hospital elements to it (part of last night’s second episode, “The Attic,” involves Eliza […]
May 11, 2010 at 8:11 am
The Losers Get Lucky » DVDs Worth Watching
[…] to give credit where it’s due: this is never going to be a Big Sexy Hospital situation, where all the pleasure comes from watching recognizable actors play off of each other. […]